BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

Okay… The Electric Boogaloo in the title is for my friend and fellow author, Alex Bledsoe… Mostly because it’s hard to fit biscuits and gravy into a blog title about a game app. Don’t worry. He’ll get the joke even if you don’t…

Now, that said, this blog entry isn’t about Alex, nor is it about biscuits, gravy, or electric boogaloos. I just couldn’t pass up a chance at the shout out.

So what is this blog entry about? Well, it’s about elitism, manners, and unfounded anger.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past month, I am sure you are well aware of the phenomenon that is Pokemon Go. Suffice it to say, it is a game app for your mobile phone, based on the old Pokemon cards/cartoon, whereby you catch Pokemon, gain experience, battle other Pokemon, etc. The truth is, it is a brilliant little game – although it IS a battery sucker. In order to hunt down Pokemon, catch them, AND replenish your supply of Poke Balls, hatch Poke Eggs, etc, you have to get out and about. In fact, you actually have to do quite a bit of walking. In short, this app has done more to get nerds off the couch and out into the fresh air getting exercise than anything I’ve ever seen. Hell, it even gets the Teen of Doom out away from her guitars for a while every day. In my book that’s a big win.

So, where do elitism, manners, and unfounded anger come in?

Well, my wife and I play Pokemon Go, too. Yes, we are in our 50’s, but we play this silly little game as well. It started as an interaction with our teen daughter. She was into it, so we decided we would join her since she’s not all about board games anymore (she was when she was younger, but things change, as we all well know.) It is something that allowed us to have a family activity that we all enjoy. We go for walks, we go to parks where there are Poke Stops and lures, etc. We are getting exercise, getting excited about the same thing, and doing a lot of talking – like I said, big win. BUT… (you saw that coming, right?) my wife and I are in our 50’s and we are playing Pokemon Go.

We have faced criticism from many sides – extended family, Facebook friends, and random strangers. We’ve been laughed at and even had a guy get all pissy with us when he found out we played – and when I say pissy I mean he started shaking his head, rolling his eyes, gesticulating, and raising his voice as he said, “Oh come on, at your age? What’s wrong with you?”

You know who HASN’T been an asshole to us? Teens and twenty-somethings. Yeah. Kids, and not just our own. Random teens we run into at parks get all excited when they see a couple of “elderly folks” playing this game and having a good time. It’s a common ground, and kids out there – and their parents who are engaged in this – are connecting.

My biggest question in all of this is: When did it become okay for someone to openly criticize me for doing something that has absolutely no effect on them whatsoever? I mean, if I was on your lawn, maybe, but when I am in the park, walking the dog, minding my own business with my family, how did it become your right to get up in my face and tell me there’s something wrong with me because I’m enjoying a silly little game on my phone while getting some exercise? When did it become okay for someone to sneer at me because I engage in a fun, family game?

Basically, when did it become okay for people to not mind their own fucking business?

I guess it’s an epidemic… Drumpf brought the racists and misogynists into the light. Pokemon Go has brought all the nosy Gladys Kravitzes into the light. (If you don’t know who Gladys Kravitz is, use Google. It’s your friend.)

At any rate, get over yourselves. I’m sorry your life is so boring, but that doesn’t give you a right to take it out on me.

More to come…

Murv

I’m sure you’ve noticed that shit has gone wonky in the world. More specifically, the United States – not that they are particularly united these days, unless you count the fact that 48 of them are pretty much stuck together by simple geographic necessity.

At any rate, let me flash back a bit…

Back during my late teens there was this movie. It was a bit of a spin on the Moon Landing Conspiracy nuts and it was called Capricorn One. (Warning, Spoilers) The basic gist of the movie is that at the last minute the government realizes that their mission to Mars will fail due to a defect in the space capsule, so just before launch they yank the astronauts, played by James Brolin, O. J. “If I Did It” Simpson, and Sam Waterston. They cart them off to a secret, hidden facility, where they have a mockup of the capsule, the lander, the martian landscape, and the whole nine yards. They fill them in on the story and convince them to act out the rest of the mission as if everything is fine – all in the interest of not embarrassing their nation. And so, they go along with it, for a while… Their compliance sort of changes when during the return flight the capsule fails, burns up, and that’s the end of that. Now the government has no choice but to off these guys and bury them somewhere, then hold a big public memorial for these fallen heroes who never actually left the Earth’s atmosphere. So, instead of saying, “Okay, I’ll take a bullet for the cause” they escape and strike out across the desert. Of course, the gubmint chases after them.

Enter Eliot Gould – intrepid reporter. He has figured out something is up and he has traveled out in search of where this secret base might be (he was tipped off by Rossi from Lou Grant… No, seriously, he was)… At any rate, after some serious acrobatic flying by Telly Savalas (Yeah, Kojak was a crop duster, who knew?) they rescue James Brolin (O.J. and Sam got offed by the federales) and deliver him to his own public funeral, right there in front of the TV cameras and everything, effectively toppling the house of cards built by the bad, eebil gubmint.

It was actually a good story, and not a bad movie. I even bought it on DVD many years later and have watched it a couple of times since that summer of my teens when two dollar matinees were the norm, and an air conditioned Wherenberg Theater was the place to be to escape the heat.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that today.

I’m pretty sure you could literally have this exact scenario occur and nothing would topple… Just look at our current election cycle. There’s a racist, misogynistic liar getting busted left and right – by himself, on tape – and he still has rabid followers who are convinced that it’s all just a plot to take down their guy. What’s worse, there are a lot of them.

Maybe that one way trip to Mars they were advertising a while back isn’t such a bad idea after all…

More to come…

Murv